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Cudwieser
1,767

Cudwieser 1,767

Hello Ladies and Gent. I'm not a train fan in the accepted sense, but an admirer of engineering. Living in Downpatrick I'm familiar with the beating and whistling of railworking and it is a lovely sound.

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lolznc
1,023

lolznc 1,023

Ah, the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, the 15" line up in the Lake District A very nice scenic line, if you don't mind squeezing into the tiny carriages. I think we Brits have a thing for miniature railways, as there's been quite a few over the years. Here's a quick history, if anyone's interested.

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Spectacus
6,469

Spectacus 6,469

Ah, the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, the 15" line up in the Lake District A very nice scenic line, if you don't mind squeezing into the tiny carriages. I think we Brits have a thing for miniature railways, as there's been quite a few over the years. Here's a quick history, if anyone's interested.

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universetwisters
28,644

universetwisters 28,644

Whilst I'm not a railway enthusiast, I do work on the UK railway infrastructure as part of S&T testing. If you've any questions on UK based signalling I'm happy to answer.

I don't know if this is related to signaling but it might be something you know of - do British locomotives have a reset button, or whatever it's called that the engineer has to press every X amount of seconds to make sure he's alive or else the train stops? I know the trains here in America have them, as do the London Underground, but I didn't know if regular mainline engines had them or not.

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Straypuft
618

Straypuft 618

Whilst I'm not a railway enthusiast, I do work on the UK railway infrastructure as part of S&T testing. If you've any questions on UK based signalling I'm happy to answer.

I don't know if this is related to signaling but it might be something you know of - do British locomotives have a reset button, or whatever it's called that the engineer has to press every X amount of seconds to make sure he's alive or else the train stops? I know the trains here in America have them, as do the London Underground, but I didn't know if regular mainline engines had them or not.

Those are usually called "Dead Man Switches", the use of 'switch' is just uniform, the real system could either be a button, a lever, or built into the control device that has to be pressed the entire time the train is in motion.

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Mark
484

Mark 484

Whilst I'm not a railway enthusiast, I do work on the UK railway infrastructure as part of S&T testing. If you've any questions on UK based signalling I'm happy to answer.

I don't know if this is related to signaling but it might be something you know of - do British locomotives have a reset button, or whatever it's called that the engineer has to press every X amount of seconds to make sure he's alive or else the train stops? I know the trains here in America have them, as do the London Underground, but I didn't know if regular mainline engines had them or not.The closest thing we have to that on mainline (from a signalling side anyway, no idea as regards the train itself) is AWS.

Whilst it doesn't require pressing all the time, it does require acknowledgement if the driver is on approach to a signal that is not green (so as to acknowledge that he does need to start braking). It's not exactly the best system out there as in busy areas drivers tend to drive under yellow or double yellow constantly so they get conditioned to the horn cab noise and end up cancelling the warning without paying too much attention. It also doesn't distinguish between a red signal (do not pass) and a yellow/double yellow (proceed) which can prove problematic if the driver isn't paying attention or is having difficulty telling apart what signal is theirs (see Ladbroke Grove rail crash). It is completely fail safe though (within reason, there are ways the system can wrong-side fail).

We now use it in conjunction with TPWS at controlled signals (which will always intervene regardless of driver action). Either way our tech is antiquated here in the UK.

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Ben73
498

Ben73 498

Whilst I'm not a railway enthusiast, I do work on the UK railway infrastructure as part of S&T testing. If you've any questions on UK based signalling I'm happy to answer.

I don't know if this is related to signaling but it might be something you know of - do British locomotives have a reset button, or whatever it's called that the engineer has to press every X amount of seconds to make sure he's alive or else the train stops? I know the trains here in America have them, as do the London Underground, but I didn't know if regular mainline engines had them or not.

We have them on my engines in Australia. It's a red button we call the 'vigilance button' or vigo since we are australian and shorten everything.

A red box will begin to flash on the screen when it starts the alert. If the button is not pressed after a certain amount of time an audible alarm will sound. The longer the alarm sounds the louder and more urgent the sound gets. If it's not acknowledged the emergency brake is applied. From the red light to strart flashing to the emergency brake applying is about a 20 to 25 second window depending on the locomotive class.

Moving the throttle, brake, blowing horn, standing on the sand pedal or pressing any button on the screen resets it. It usually come on again after about 60 seconds of no control moments.